Mother House of the Saverian missionaries

The Mother House of the Saverian missionaries It is a building with Neoromanic shapes located in Viale San Martino 8 in Parma; It houses the Sanctuary Guido Maria Conforti, the Chinese and ethnographic art museum and the Saveriana Conforti library.

The Saverian Institute, originally called the “Emilian Seminary for foreign missions”, was founded in 1895 by the then Monsignor Guido Maria Conforti in a small building in Borgo Leon d’Oro, which he purchased three years earlier, destined to accommodate seminarians who wanted to start missionary life. ^[first]

Renamed three years later Pia Society of San Francesco Saverio for the foreign missions with the approval of Bishop Francesco Magani, the congregation needed larger spaces, therefore Monsignor Conforti in 1899 managed to buy a vast plot of the vegetable gardens south of the city, between the field of Mars and the Lungoparma. ^[first]

The construction project of the new building was assigned to the engineer Carlo Pelleri and the works were entrusted to the Quarino Zamboni company; The solemn ceremony of the laying of the first stone was held on April 24, 1900, in the presence of Bishop Magani and the main city authorities; The construction site continued quickly for a few months and did not cease even after the renunciation by the Zamboni company, which was replaced by the Emilio Foglia company on 7 September. The original building, consisting of the central entrance factory and the first east wing, was completed in the autumn of 1901, ^[2] With the inauguration of the Palazzo and the Chinese and ethnographic art museum, at the time located in a room on the first floor. ^[3]

In 1919 the building proved insufficient to cope with all the applications for admission, therefore the rector of the institution decided to expand it, again entrusting the project to the Pellers Engineer; In 1921 the construction works of the West wing were started by the Emilio Messilian company, symmetrically arranged in the east wing to form a building developed on a U -shaped plant with a courtyard inside. ^[2]

Between 1957 and 1959 the building was subjected to a new expansion, even more consistent than the previous one, which consisted in the raising of two floors of the entire construction and in the construction of the extreme east wing, inside which the large chapel and new spaces for the museum; ^[3] Finally, the large statue of the Redeemer , performed by the sculptor Pietro Tavani. ^[2]

In 1997 the Bishop Silvio Cesare Bonicelli elevated the internal church to Sanctuary, which already housed the body of Monsignor Conforti from the construction, proclaimed saint in 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI. ^[4]

The imposing building develops on an articulated plant, the result of the extensions followed over the years. ^[2]

The building is entirely covered in brick on the three main sides, while on the internal side it is plaster.

The oldest area rises symmetrically around the entrance positioned inside an all -sixteenth -century arches, at the center of a slightly projecting body. The first three levels, originally raised, are enriched with Marcapian bands, friezes and numerous other reasons made of terracotta; The first level windows are valuable, made up of elegant balustrades in neo -Romanesque style framed by arches, which also present neo -Gothic elements in the openings between the arches. The elevated part, albeit also made of brick, takes up some reasons for the underlying levels, but stands out for the greater simplicity in the decorations. At the center at the top rises a border with steps adorned with the Latin inscription Going to teach all nations (“Go and make disciples all the peoples”), on which the bronze statue of the Redeemer , high 3,80 m. ^[2]

The extreme east wing, more recent, rises on five floors in analogy with the oldest part, of which he resumes a few decorations; The most prominent element is the projecting porch that acts as access to the large sanctuary. After all, a lower building is finally accessing the Chinese and ethnographic art museum.

The large chapel, high in 1997 in Sanctuary, was built during the expansion works carried out between 1957 and 1959, in the extreme east wing, with direct access from the outside through a portico; The project was entrusted to the architect engineer Parmigiano Sisto from Rosa Prati, who created a large basilica -style church, rigorously symmetrical. ^[4]

The church is divided into three naves, marked by a high colonnade; The central space, more spacious, represents the classroom for the celebration, in which the sessions for the faithful are positioned, while the lateral naves, surmounted by matronei, act as ambulacrs, which end in two large chapels on the sides of the apsidian presbytery. Above the columns the twelve are depicted Apostles within medallions, while the matronei open with great trifores in correspondence with each arch; The ceiling is decorated with patterns, made by the painter Tito Peretti. ^[4]

The wood and bronze altar created in 1997 by the sculptor Livio counts, also author of the ambo and the ambone, is positioned at the center of the presbytery Cross of the martyrs ; The apsidian fund is dominated by the imposing mosaic created between 1962 and 1963 by the Blessed Angelico school in Milan, depicting in the center there Trinity , children Mary on the heavenly throne who supports the Child Jesus ; On the sides there are, standing, i Mission models e Saints Protectors : St. Francesco Fogolla, San Francesco Saverio and San Giuseppe on the left; San Paolo, Santa Teresa of Lisieux and San Guido Maria Conforti on the right. ^[4]

Behind the altar, in the center of the apse, since 1996 the sarcophagus of San Guido Maria Conforti has been positioned, made of black marble and glass in 1942 on a project by the architect Parmigiano Lamberto Cusani. ^[4]

The left side chapel, called the chapel of the Crucifix, is dominated by the large papier -mâché crucifix to which the saint was very tied, as as a child he stopped in front of it every day to “dialogue” with him, so much so that he made him feel the priestly vocation; Monsignor Conforti had recovered it in 1907 from the sacristy of the oratory of Santa Maria della Pace of Borgo delle Colonne, which has long been deconsecrated, and had made him restore it. ^[5]

The right side chapel, called the Holy Chapel, is characterized by the imposing Carrara marble altar, made in 1941 on the design of the Massese architect Enrico Remedi, with the bronze tabernacle of the sculptor Pietro Tavani at the center. The image of the Madonna della Strada , the work of the Parma painter Ulysses Passani, to whose sides there are six wooden tiles of the sculptor Livio counts. ^[4]

The first floor of the parent company houses a museum journey dedicated to San Guido Maria Conforti, structured as follows:

• entrance and corridor;
• Red Room, Ancient Studio by Guido Maria Conforti entirely covered with red upholstery with floral motifs;
• Monsignor Conforti room, bedroom of the saint furnished with furniture and objects from the bishop’s palace of Parma;
• Family objects, environment that exhibits some furnishings and furnishings that belonged to the Conforti family;
• Personal objects room, a place that holds the objects that Guido Maria Conforti was linked inside the windows;
• Room in memory and PGR, exhibition environment of the documents of the entire canonization process of Monsignor Conforti and the ex votes donated by numerous devotees By grace received ;
• Martiri Chapel, original oratory of the parent company before the construction of the large chapel, today sanctuary;
• Sala Ricordi Saveriani China, a place that collects the photographs of the missionaries in the celestial Empire, then Republic of China, before the disappearance of Guido Maria Conforti, the memories of the Chinese martyrs of 1900 and the last letter of San Francesco Saverio of 1552, donated by Countess Anna Pallavicino Simonetta in 1908;
• Saverian family room, an environment that exhibits a series of panels that summarize history and spread in the world of Saverian missionaries. ^[4]

The palace also houses the Saveriana Conforti library, founded by the saint in the last years of the 19th century.

It collects about 60 000 volumes and 200 periodicals relating to theological, religious and missionary subjects. ^[4]